Assassin's Creed 3- Review

The Assassin's Creed series is not a series I am very familiar with. I never managed to get through the first game and Italy never really interested me enough to pick up number two. Assassin's Creed 3 takes on a new setting of Colonial America and it definitely does not disappoint, and it has not left my mind since I got it two weeks ago.

I'm going to say it straight out, I didn't really like Assassin's Creed 3's campaign. Assassin's Creed 3 is suppose to be the most accessible for newcomers to the series, but I beg to differ. The modern day campaign is about Desmond and friends and their attempt to save the world. There are so many references to the story from the previous games that I literally had no idea what was going on in the modern day for most of the game. You are taken out of the Animus 3 or 4 times, during the story, to go and retrieve power sources for the temple Desmond is in. I cared little for these sections and felt that they took away from the experience I was having inside the Animus. I felt no connection to Desmond or any of his friends and the ending isn't that good, even for series long fans. I've talked to a couple of other people who have finished the game and they think the same about the ending, too.

Desmond's ancestor's campaign is based in Colonial America, before and during the American Revolution. For most of the campaign you play as Connor, a half-English half-Native American Assassin who has tasked himself with killing all the Templar leaders in America, avenging his dead mother and saving his village from the Revolution. The story tries to show both sides of the war and brings up questions about peace and freedom. I thought Ubisoft Montreal could have done a better job expanding on those themes because everything that was addressed in the campaign felt like it was really brushed over. In truth, the whole campaign felt really contained. The 12 sequences skip ahead quite a length of time from one another and I feel this limited the amount of character progression that could be shown and experienced by the player. By the end of Connor's story, I didn't really feel connected to him as a character and didn't agree with some of his actions. Personally, I didn't think there was enough back story for me to be that involved with the story. It's good as a series of events between Assassins and Templars, but I wanted more than that. On that note, some of the late game assassinations are really anti-climatic- unexpected though.

A couple of good things can be taken away from the campaign, however. Because the story is set over about 20 years you really get to see the toll the revolution has had on Connor and the rest of the colonies. Eventually, Connor has had enough and trusts no one. These later scenes are some of the best in the game. The campaign isn't without some great set pieces, too. Some of these include running through Charlestown while it is being bombed, and engaging in amazing sea battles (including the Battle of Chesapeake Bay). These set pieces really do a good job taking you into the Revolution. That's thanks to the great jobs Ubisoft Montreal and Singapore (naval combat) have done with the historical accuracy of weapons and ships from the Colonial America era. I also liked that there aren't many mandatory stealth missions in the campaign, or in the game in general. There are optional objectives throughout the main missions that include not being detected, but for those clumsy assassins *cough* *cough* there isn't really a penalty for being detected.

When not participating in the main missions, there is an abundance of things to do in Assassin's Creed 3. With four areas to explore (Boston, New York, the Frontier, and your Homestead), I was continually distracted on my way to the main missions. You can go hunting in the Frontier, terrorise guards in Boston, liberate New York, and participate in sea combat missions from a harbourmaster. These distractions are just a few of the many things you can do in Assassin's Creed 3. In one sitting, I planned to head from my Homestead, through the Frontier, and get to Boston to continue the main story. Two hours later, I was half way across the Frontier, further away from my objective than when I started, and I had a bag full of spoils from my hunting. That's how easy it is to get distracted.

With the Anvil Next Engine, exploring Colonial America has never been so fun and absorbing. Anvil Next has been built from the ground up and makes Assassin's Creed 3 look beautiful and run just as well. Every environment and area in Assassin's Creed 3 looks as stunning as the last. Towns and cities are populated with NPCs just continuing with their daily activities and indulging in conversation with each other. Boston and New York feel like real cities because of all the citizens and the attention to detail on the buildings is astounding. Both cities have been recreated, to scale, exactly the way they were during the revolution. Just climb to a viewpoint and you will see what I mean.

The Frontier is really where Anvil Next shows its full colours. Climb a mountain in the Frontier and you will see an endless array of trees, mountains, rivers and small towns. Most of these places are accessible and all give you a great sense of freedom. There is just so much land to explore and so many things to find and do. The Frontier is also home to 50 feathers that can be collected, usually by completing a small tree climbing puzzle. There are some big loading times in Assassin's Creed 3, but once everything is loaded in an area, you don't have to see another loading screen until you start a mission or go to a new area, which can sometimes be never- even in a long play session. I would happily take one longer load time in replace for several smaller load times any day.

Tree Climbing is great!

Apart from looking visually amazing, Assassin's Creed 3 has some great music and immersive sound effects. The original score fits perfectly with the Colonial setting and the music in the main story really backed up what I was seeing. Sea battles are accompanied by a collection of tunes you would hear in a pirate movie. Usually, I prefer to be talking to someone while playing video games, but when I was playing Assassin's Creed 3, I just wanted to be in the game and listening to all its beauty. Words really can't describe how fitting the audio is for Assassin's Creed 3.

Anvil Next incorporates changes in seasons and the weather into Assassin's Creed 3. When it's raining, you can see the water running down character's clothes. You can also see this dripping effect for a few seconds after Connor has got out of water. If there is rain in the summer months, you can see a low fog start to appear along the ground. These small touches do more than enough to create a dynamic and lifelike environment. But that's not all. The seasons change in Assassin's Creed 3. What season you are in depends on the story sequence you are up to. When a winter month is being played, snow covers everything. Roofs have a layer of snow on them and the roads get covered in a lighter layer of snow. However, when you go into the Frontier, it's like a whole new world. Areas that I would usually recognise when it was summer had been changed because the snow covers trees a bit more and makes it look like you are in a different place. Off the roads, the snow is really heavy and that affects your movement. Instead of running quickly, Connor will trudge through the snow. It is quicker to move onto rocks or through trees than running through the snow. Some animals, like wolves, are mainly only seen when it is winter. I love the idea and effect of changing seasons and think it further adds to the fantastic world Ubisoft Montreal has created.

The Anvil Next Engine also hosts a massive variety of animations. Everything Connor does is animated perfectly and I didn't notice any technical problems when it came to his (or anyone for that matter) animations. Whether he is in combat, climbing, or just walking around town, Connor looks amazing. His Native American roots have helped with his ability to climb just about anything. However, there were a few graphical glitches with weapons floating in mid air and the lock picking animation not appearing in the right spot, but these are very minor issues for a new engine that has impressed me immensely.

Combat in Assassin's Creed 3 is simple to learn, but once you master flowing combat and changing weapons on the fly, it is so much more fun. In combat you are presented with a few options. There is a counter button, a break defense button, a melee button, and a tool button (tools include guns, bows and arrows, poison darts, etc.). Basic enemies can be killed by countering their attacks and then using your melee weapon (be it hidden blades, a sword, a tomahawk, etc.), but tougher enemies will require you to disarm them or break their defense first. Enemies also have the ability to shoot at you. To combat this, you can use another enemy as a human shield, sprint at them so you get close enough to them for the shot to miss, or just shoot them first. If you map weapons to the D-pad, you can change which one you are wielding mid fight. I felt like a true warrior when I would shoot someone with a gun, hack another with my tomahawk, then pull out my bow for the final kill. The ability to seamlessly flow from killing one enemy to another is great for both the player and any onlookers. On saying that, the kill animations are really brutal. This feeling of brutality is mainly achieved because of the sound effects, and because Anvil Next makes pretty much every hit connect properly. If you work out how to kill on the run (this means you don't enter counter/ melee combat, you just kill them and keep running), you will have an even better time. Assassin's Creed 3 does a good job of making you feel as strong and deadly as a real assassin, while making you know you are still vulnerable.

When you aren't engaged in combat, Ubisoft Montreal has given players plenty of options for being a lethal predator. Stalk your enemies from trees and then jump down for a double assassination, hang an unsuspecting soldier from a tree or building, or just poison them all. There are so many possibilities to help keep the combat interesting.

As well as land combat, there is also sea combat in Assassin's Creed 3. When I saw previews for the sea missions, I was a bit sceptical about the sea combat. How much control would you have? Would it be fun? I'm glad to tell you that you have full control over the cannons, steering and the speed (so pretty much everything I think you need to captain a ship). Oh, and it's awesome! The water looks amazing as you are sailing on it. Realistic waves make your boat move up and down and can affect cannon fire (don't try to fire cannon balls through waves). Steering is very accurate and smooth and I didn't have any trouble maneuvering through tight spots. When it comes to ship versus ship combat, the action feels very balanced. You can either try to sinks ships with your cannons, or buy a ram for the front of your ship so you can... well, ram other ships. Five years ago, if you had have told me that one day I would be sailing ships from Colonial America in a video game, and it would not be a gimmick, I would have laughed. The fact that Ubisoft Singapore actually pulled this off is quite an amazing feat.

In Assassin's Creed 3, a lot of the time it was the little things that made the experience better. The Animus database, written by modern day character Shaun, is filled with lots of actual historical information about various events, people, and places from the Revolution and Colonial America. There are also plenty of funny comments and jokes made throughout the information that really made me laugh. Some of the humour is aimed to be quite low, "He named it Mount Johnson. That sounds like mating instructions for a cave man," but I think it works. Also, there were a surprising number of jokes about the American Education System. Another little thing I liked in Assassin's Creed 3 was the implementation of leaderboards. You can track your friend's total kills, money, assassinations, and many more. Listening to Benjamin Franklin talk for about 5 minutes on why older women are better is, also, a pretty funny thing to experience.

Although this is all great, I wish there had have been a few more tutorials. The start of the game is a bit of a tutorial to climbing and combat, but other tasks, like crafting and upgrading your homestead aren't explained that well. There is only a basic combat tutorial, too, so you would have had to have heard about the kill while moving ability beforehand to know it existed.

The enemy A.I. can be pretty bad at times. Sometimes, I would assassinate someone right next to them and they would not react. Sure, it makes it fun for the player to mess around, but the line of sight for the enemies could be improved.

Once you are done with single player, there is multiplayer to take part in. I haven't played that many games of multiplayer, but I'm really loving it. The team games aren't that fun, but free for all is really suspensful and enjoyable. Multiplayer is definitely more fun if you have at least one friend in the game with you (but isn't most multiplayer better with friends anyway?). There is a co-op mode, but at the time of review I haven't tested it out.

Final Comments:

If you want an emotional story, both modern and revolutionary, you might want to wait for a different title to have a crack at it. But if you want a story that does a good job of using the American Revolution as a backdrop, definitely pick up Assassin's Creed 3. New places to the series might find most of Desmond's story confusing and boring. You are definitely going to get the best out of Assassin's Creed 3 if you explore the land and embrace the freedom Ubisoft has given players. Assassin's Creed 3 is one of those games where it's easy to overlook the negatives and just appreciate all the positives. Anvil Next is a great technological advancement and I can tell Ubisoft has put a lot of effort into making it perform brilliantly. Assassin's Creed 3 may just be the best game I have played all year, so far.

+ Anvil Next Engine

+ Massive world with plenty of freedom

+ Sea combat

+ Colonial America

- Main Story isn't very fleshed out, character development wise

- Some mechanics aren't explained well enough

Rating: 9/10 (Amazing)

Have you played Assassin's Creed 3? Are you planning on buying it? Leave any comments below!